


Red Sun

by Leaderofthemoon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 17:42:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16180019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leaderofthemoon/pseuds/Leaderofthemoon
Summary: Keith and Shiro race bikes through the desert, like old times.





	Red Sun

“Hey,” Keith says, standing in door of Shiro’s new office. Three years ago, he would have hunched against the doorframe and stared at the plastic floor, but not anymore.  

Shiro looks up from his tablet, smile lighting his tired face. “Hey, Keith.”

Keith wonders if anyone else can see how tired Shiro really is. The way he braces himself against tables and walls when he thinks no one is looking. The deep breaths he takes between his teeth when he stands. Keith knows that he is the one who gained two years, but Shiro has been so close to death so many times now—it is starting to catch up with him. The white hair is only a single symptom of his walk on the other side. And half his ribs breaking when the Galra ship crashed to Earth didn’t help anything. 

“You want to go for a ride?” Keith asks. He steps into the office, taking a moment to appreciate the view of the desert. He picks up a miniature of the black lion; one of Lance’s siblings made it for Shiro. He turns the wooden figurine over in his hands before putting it back.

Shiro looks down at his tablet.

“Oh, uh, right,” Keith says before Shiro can say anything. “Commander of the garrison can’t just—”

“Let’s go,” Shiro stands quickly, without wincing. He grabs his uniform jacket off the back of his chair and brushes past Keith on his way out of the office.

“Uh,”

“You coming?” Shiro laughs over his shoulder at Keith’s slack jaw.

The new black paladin chases after the old, frustrated that he still struggles to keep up with Shiro, even now that he is only a few inches away from being the same height. He grabs Shiro’s arm to slow him down, ducking under dangling wires. So much rebuilding to be done.

“Sorry Keith,” Shiro laughs. “But we have to move quickly, before—”

“Shiro!” Vicky calls from behind them. Shiro winces, shoulders tense. “Where are you going? We having a meeting in ten minutes!”

“Uh, something more important came up!” He shouts without turning around. “Voltron stuff!” Shiro grabs Keith’s shoulder “Come on Keith, let’s go.” He smiles conspiratorially and steers Keith down the nearest hallway.

“Exactly what meeting are you ditching?” Keith asks as they enter the hangar. The cavernous space is filled with the deafening rattle of construction.

“A space defense meeting,” Shiro shrugs.

“That’s a really important one,” Keith replies.

“Aren’t they all? But you’re more important.”

Keith has to look away. His cheeks feel hot. 

“Where do you want to go?” Shiro asks.

“Let’s do the old route,” Keith says. “You know the one.” 

“Oh, I do,” Shiro laughs.

All Keith can do is laugh in return. Shiro is handsome, Keith saw that from the moment Shiro walked into his classroom all those years ago. But it is...different now. Keith isn’t sure exactly when it started to ache when he looked at Shiro. Sometime after Shiro returned to Earth a miracle, and sometime before he’d told the crazed and cloned Shiro that he loved him. Even thinking about it makes him blush. He ducks, revving his bike. 

“Try and keep up,” Shiro shouts, goggles mussing his white hair. Before Keith can even respond Shiro tears off, scattering officers of the garrison in his wake. Keith slams his foot on the pedal, the bike lifting off the ground and shooting after Shiro. 

Once past the shattered garrison walls Shiro pushes his bike even faster. Keith follows suit. For the first time, he realizes every time they’d done this before, Shiro had been holding back. Not anymore.

Keith pushes his bike to the limit, so hard the machine begins to shake, pulling up beside Shiro. Keith whoops as his bike pulls slightly ahead. He shoots a look back at Shiro, who is grinning wildly. Keith’s hair whips across his face, stinging his lips, distracting him for a moment. 

That’s when Shiro nudges his bike’s thruster against Keith’s. Just a tap. But at that speed, Keith swerves to the side. Keith regains control, but not before Shiro has pulled a length ahead. 

“Hey!” Keith screams over the wind. 

“I didn’t teach you all my tricks!” Shiro shouts back. 

Keith tries to over-take Shiro again, but the incline is too much for his bike’s engine. And even if he had a more powerful bike, Keith isn’t sure he’d beat Shiro. It is clear why he’d been known as the best pilot in the garrison. Each bump propelled him forward instead of holding him back, each embankment was a ramp taking him higher and faster. By the time they reach the jump, Shiro gained another bike length on Keith. 

Shiro shoots off the edge, flying, for a moment, instead of falling. The setting sun slides along the curves of the hover bike, dying Shiro’s hair pink. Shiro’s joyous silhouette, dark against the red mountains and red sun, is one of the most beautiful things Keith has ever seen. 

Without pause, without hesitation, Keith careens after him, weightless above the desert, Earth spread out before him. He shouts, laughing as he flies. 

“I win,” Shiro says as Keith pulls up beside him. 

“Maybe,” Keith says, dismounting his bike. The pair rest against their machines, like they had so many times before, enjoying the view before the light fades. 

They stand in companionable silence for a while.

“This is the first place you lied to me.” Keith blurts. He regrets it immediately as Shiro’s mouth opens in shock before his face presses together in pain, followed by resignation. 

“It is,” Shiro says. “But it’s a lot more than that, too me.”

“No, no it’s a lot more to, ugh, I wasn’t trying to, what I’m trying to say,” Keith grabs Shiro’s shoulder. Their dark eyes meet. “What I’m trying to say is, are you okay now?” 

“Are you asking if I’m still sick?” 

“I’m asking if you’re still dying.” 

Shiro frowns at Keith and studies the dirt. “I, I don’t think so. This body...it’s not mine. It is, well, it’s the Galra’s copy of me. I don’t feel, I don’t feel sick. But I didn’t before either.” 

“You haven’t asked a doctor? You haven’t run tests?” Keith snaps. His fingers dig into Shiro’s shoulder through his leather jacket. 

Shiro pauses for a long time. He refuses to look up from the ground. “I’m, I’m too afraid to, Keith.” 

“Oh,” Keith’s hand falls away from Shiro’s shoulder. 

“What if, what if I’m not me anymore Keith? What if I’m not Shiro?” He lifts his eyes to meet Keith’s. 

“Shiro, I know you,” Keith says. “I know you better than anyone. It is you.” 

“I was dead Keith,” Shiro fists his white hair. “I was dead for years. And now I’m, I’m back in this other body, and I have memories for two years of my life that I didn’t live.” 

Keith doesn’t know what to say to Shiro, who stares at the setting sun. 

“I mean, I, I hurt you Keith. How am I supposed to live with my other self after that?” 

“Shiro, that wasn’t you, that was Haggar.”

“I can feel my lips saying those awful things to you. I know what it feels like to want you dead.” 

Keith swore he saw Shiro’s eyes shimmer with tears. 

“Shiro, I cut your arm off. I know you feel that too, in your memory.” Keith winces as he relives his own memory, the sensation of his blade slicing through metal flesh. Keith stares into the red sun. 

“But I deserved it,” Shiro says. “You didn’t.”

Keith freezes as he feels Shiro’s thumb, his warm human thumb, on his cheek. Shiro traces the scar he left on Keith’s face, from cheek bone to jaw line. Keith turns wide-eyed to Shiro and the man’s thumb lingers on his jaw, just for a moment. 

Nerves slide over Shiro’s face and he removes his hand and tucks it into the back of his hair. He looks skittishly at the ground as Keith stares.

“You were the only thing that pulled me out Keith. And...and I want you to know, what you said, I feel the same way. I love you, Keith.” 

Keith is moving before rational thought kicks in. He closes the space between them with a step, cups his hand under Shiro’s jaw, leans up into Shiro, and fits their lips together. Shiro’s bottom lip is so soft and full between Keith’s own, warm and slightly sticky where Shiro had just licked it. 

For a moment, Shiro is stiff with shock, eyes wide open as Keith kisses him. But before Keith can realize what he has done, Shiro presses into the kiss, closing his eyes and wrapping his hands around Keith’s waist. Keith’s mouth is so tender and delicate twined with his own. Shiro parts his lips slightly, slipping his lower lip farther into Keith’s mouth, just beginning to feel the slick heat of his tongue. 

The pair break apart, Keith’s hands clasping Shiro’s face, Shiro clutching Keith’s waist. Shiro’s eyes are softened with love, as are Keith’s. 

“I love you too, Takashi,” Keith murmurs. Shiro’s face cracks slightly and Keith barely has time to think “maybe I’m the first person to say that since he left Adam” before Shiro pulls him closer, pressing their entire bodies together as Shiro kisses him now. Shiro’s lower lip teases his mouth open and Keith slides his tongue along It, tasting it’s faint saltiness. Shiro’s tongue brushes his own and it’s hot and wet and Keith realizes he is starting to feel light headed. Shiro steps back for a moment and Keith leans after him as their mouths separate. Shiro swings his leg across his bike, mounting it backwards, bracing his back against the controls. He holds his arms open and Keith doesn’t need to be asked. He mounts the bike forwards, sliding down the leather seat into Shiro’s body. His legs are at an awkward angle until Shiro grabs them and lifts them over his own thighs, pulling Keith closer in the process and fully interlocking them. Keith knows Shiro must have kissed like this before, with someone else, the academy hotshot making out with someone on the seat of his hover bike, but Keith stops caring when Shiro locks their lips together again. 

Keith feels Shiro’s human and cyborg hands on his back, sliding up and down his jacket. The cyborg hand runs through the back of his hair and the human hand teases fingers under the edge of his shirt. Keith is more than light headed now. 

Keith presses forward into Shiro’s kiss, sending his tongue deeper into the man’s mouth, touching his teeth but mostly dancing and twining with his tongue. Keith doesn’t tease at the edge of Shiro’s shirt because part of his back is already exposed. Keith slides his hand up Shiro’s spine, his muscles hard and hot under his fingers. Shiro shivers at his touch. 

Shiro pulls back, their lips sliding apart. He is panting, lips plumper, pinker, and wetter than before. “Keith,” his voice is deep and breaks to a sharp intake of breath as Keith slips his hand just under the waistband of his pants.”Keith, ah, I think we should, ahm, stop.”

Keith immediately freezes and pulls back his hand. “Why?” He asks, trying to hide his nerves at the answer. 

“Because the way this is going...the way this is going things are going to go really far. And I want that, quiznak I want that, but I want to keep things slow,” Shiro places his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “I, I don’t want to mess things up.”

Keith relaxes, placing his hands on Shiro’s thighs. Immediately Keith notices that Shiro must be very, very light headed himself. Shiro stiffens a little, laughing. 

“That might not be the best places to put your hands if we want to take this slow,” Shiro murmurs. 

Keith smiles and slides his hands to Shiro’s waist. 

“Can we eat dinner tonight? Just us? My quarters?” Keith asks. 

“Yes,” Shiro grins. He studies Keith’s face for a moment before tipping the black paladin’s face up and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. “Yes,” he moans against Keith’s mouth. Arousal shoots through Keith at the moaned word and he scrambles off of Shiro’s bike, glaring at The white haired man. 

Shiro grins wide—he knows exactly what he is capable of doing to Keith, with a single tone of voice. 

Keith, not going to be cowed, leans over Shiro’s back wrapping his arms around his neck as the former black Paladin transitions to facing forward on his bike. 

“Okay then,” he moans in Shiro’s ear, gently taking his ear lobe between his teeth.

Shiro returns the look Keith gave him a moment ago, shocked and impressed and aroused. 

Keith slides off Shiro’s bike and they each take a moment to compose themselves. Keith hops back on his bike, revving the engine and leading the way back to the garrison, two dark figures cutting through the dusk.


End file.
